Telomeres and telomerase in Alzheimer's disease: Epiphenomena or a new focus for therapeutic strategy?

New approaches to the elucidation of Alzheimer disease, even those with solid data, are often ignored or dismissed as epiphenomenal when they differ from the mainstream or theoretical expectations. Here we present a new piece to the puzzle, decreases in telomere length, and telomerase expression in neuronal populations known to be vulnerable to degeneration and death in Alzheimer's disease. We can present the answers to the question "what," but the "why," "when," and "how" are not so easily answered. The goal of this report is to prompt discussion and more intensive study of this finding toward a new focus of therapeutic strategy.